A little over two and half years ago, Dari gave their impressions on this 2015 piece of city-building majesty. I think it is phrases like that which give away the game a little, if my two or three times talking about Cities: Skylines prior to this haven’t done that enough. Between a couple of editions of Sims City 3000 and my well-established adulation for management/business simulation games, I think it is fair to say Cities: Skylines was perfectly aimed at me. Especially after years of absolute drivel slopping out, including EA’s 2013 attempt to mug fans of the series one last time.

The mid-2010s were a peak of this renaissance of exemplary business management games, with the likes of Prison Architect, Parkitect, and Kerbal Space Program (to an extent) all being released within a short period of time. This was soon followed up by Two Point Hospital, Planet Coaster, Planet Zoo, Frostpunk, and more releasing not long after. It was a dream come true for fans of the 90s/early 00s-era of PC games that could just be about balancing a budget on a spreadsheet, and I (alongside many others) would snort it up like crack.

Out of seemingly nowhere, Paradox Interactive launched the ship of many long nights fighting traffic issues. Cities: Skylines (while not breaking new ground) found out what a number of people were crying out for after years of waiting, and two years of disappointment from EA’s SimCity (2013). A big and straight-to-the-point city-builder that is only as deep as you want it to be. Gone were the days of mecha-Godzilla, tsunamis, god (mostly me) throwing rocks at the little city, and more to see the panic unfold. At least until the release of the disaster DLC in 2016. Your only headache comes from your own incompetence giving people another shortcut to bottleneck.

I harp on about it every time I talk about Cities: Skylines, but that’s because it is the staple of the game. You believe in every fiber of your being that you will be the messiah to crack the code, removing all concerns of traffic jams ever again. Then someone backs up your highway for three miles trying to cut back in from the industrial sector. It always happens. Returning recently for another couple of days to play, I went looking for mods specifically to counter this, and you know what happened? Tail-to-tail backups for miles because I am Mister Thick Thick Thickity Thick Face from Thicktown, Thickania.

Naturally one of the greatest features of Cities: Skylines is the native modding support and ease of sharing in-game creations. You can create maps, specific highway connections, and more, all of which can be made from a simple tool in-game and shared online. That is what you love to see, especially with a game that is inherently single-player but is focused around the community as well. Without this built-in set of tools and philosophy, I think Cities: Skylines may not have had some of the success it has, at least initially.

Playing on the Epic Games Store version, some of that ease of use is missing. Cue the Steam-only crowd cheering for the Workshop. If you are common to modding games it isn’t too much of a hassle. Nevertheless, if you are used to some of the more user-friendly tools such as Steam Workshop and other conveniences, it might take a minute to find the mod folder. You kids don’t know how hard it was back in the day. However, playing Cities: Skylines without mods now feels dirty and wrong, as if it is naked and you shouldn’t be looking.

Much like everyone else, intersections were the first port of call but second on the list was a traffic management mod. I swear it feels wrong otherwise. The ability to toggle traffic lights, change the timing, alter lane connections, pathfinding, vehicle restrictions, change arrow directions, and so on, should make the city run a bit smoother. Maybe it was the selected mod, Traffic Manager President Edition, or it is restrictions within the game, but selecting every road on heavily intersected portions of my disgusting industrial province really wasn’t fun.

This raises a question, is Cities: Skylines fun? Yes, yes it is, despite being constantly harangued by stupid people with their idiotic AI, Cities: Skylines is a never-ending piece of relaxing fun. Much like my enjoyment of Euro Truck Simulator 2 or its predecessor 18 Wheels of Steel, I’ll stick a podcast on and find that when I awake from my coma, it is three days later and I’ve created a small country. It is one of those, “is that the time? I was supposed to function as a human several hours/days/months/years ago” games. Much like Factorio or driving to Estonia hauling a tank.

There is something about the beautiful mess you create that is neverendingly inviting, always asking you to keep playing to fix that problem over there. As relaxing as it is, there is always something going on and something to fix, something that is your fault. That, I think is the most enchanting part of the city-builder game design, nothing should feel like someone else’s fault. Traffic backing up is on you, the lack of services is on you, and the ability (or lack thereof) to make money is on you. It is problem-solving with a bit of creativity and the goal of generating money.

Ultimately, Cities: Skylines returns the city-building genre to its basics, doing it well, and making sure there is room enough to expand upon. It does have the usual problem that a large number of Paradox Interactive games have, which is seven quintillion bits of DLC of varying use spread out over more than half a decade now. Some are useful, some return the aforementioned god powers of the Will Wright created series, and some are just not worth the money. However, at its core, Colossal Order’s modern take on the classics of city simulation is worth every traffic-based headache it offers.

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Cities: Skylines

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• A simple modern take on a classic.
• A strong native modding community.
• A constant feeling of solving self-created problems.

Cons

• A constant feeling or nakedness without mods or DLC years later.
• Console ports feel clunkly in comparison.